I'm prepping for the Broad Street run, which is a ten mile run through the streets of Philadelphia in May. It's a big deal to me, though I've learned that if you're not a runner, it's not a big deal to anyone else, which I'm fine with. I'm ramping up for it and trying not to re-injure myself. Tonight I ran 7.5 miles along the shuylkill river which was remarkable and wonderful and I wanted to share it.

Almost immediately upon hitting the trail, I was passed by a woman pushing a baby stroller. She didn't actually just pass me, she passed me like a freaking bullet. I've learned that I'm not the fastest runner, and my sister who's a real runner tells me that I'll never be fast, and that's fine, that I can just keep going. And that's fine too. As someone who was denied running for basically my whole life due to Not Being Fit Enough to Run, the reward is just to run.

As the sun went down the river glowed blue from the sky above. This is boathouse Row from the Gazebo at the Waterworks. About half the time I run out here there's a wedding photographer and a bride out here -- which makes sense, it's one of the most spectacular views in the city. I had it all to myself tonight.

In November, when I was still gasping through workouts my gym-buddy (which I guess is sort of like an AA buddy, who keeps you from skipping the gym) suggested that we ride bikes along the trail. That sounded like a good idea. He said "Just say when you think you've gone half-way" -- pick the point where you're half way to not being able to finish and get home. I remember very well the point at which riding the bike was tedious enough that I said "this is it, we turn around here." And the fact that tonight I ran, on my feet, past that point was a big deal. I as I ran past, some rowers came down the river.

Seeing that I was in the area (having complained about being passed by a woman pushing a stroller) Twitter demanded that I run up the steps of the Art Museum (a la Rocky) so I hit the steps hard just as some tourist with an annoying beard was running up while his girlfriend videotaped it. He passed me on the last few steps and when we got to the top he turned and said "I beat you!" and did a little Rocky dance. My brain wanted to say "Only if you started seven miles from here," but I settled for passively aggressively Tweeting it instead. Plus, any yahoo can run up the Art Museum steps. You know what's a lot more impressive? running down them.

I was using the Zombie's Run app for my iPhone, which was great. It's a story you listen to about a zombie infestation and periodically even though you have a spotter in a tower trying to direct you away from the shambling hoards, occasionally they'll pop out of the trees and you hear your tracker start pinging and you start running faster and you can hear the zombies getting louder and louder behind you and it's freaking scary and you sprint even six miles into it, you sprint, because you can just about feel their claws at your back. It was good.

Anyway. I still owe a Chicago recap, and I'll get to that. In the meantime, things are going well here. I hope things are good for you as well. There'll be an "Our Gym Share" update soon I think.

the boy and I were joking about getting married there just so we could run up the steps and look like dorks for our "first dance" (neither of us actually dance much, and we're not getting engaged, let alone married, for a while. but we joke about this stuff. We may high five everyone as we recess down the aisle, too.)

Yesterday I finished Day Two of Week Four of Couch to 5k, where you jog 5 minutes at a time twice and three minutes at a time twice, and it was easy. When I looked at the intervals for next week, I thought to my self that jogging three intervals at five minutes each won't be that bad. To me, this is amazing! Also, I've been substituting a lot of the crap I usually eat with fresh fruit juice, and I've had so much energy I've been literally running up stairs. I feel like I've been becoming fit, and a lot of this is because of your and Quiche's posts about getting fit. Sometimes, I almost cry at how easy some of this exercise stuff has become because I grew up with a mom whose advice for weight loss was "Just stop eating," and I was never willing to do that.

It's pretty fun. Though after I finished my first mission last night I didn't realize that the second wouldn't start unless I started it manually, so I got 45 minutes of the radio show and "YOU HAVE PICKED UP A BOX OF BANDGAGES"

"Only if you started seven miles from here".. indeed :) I'm glad your leg is healed and you're back outside. The light in the third picture down, in the sky and on the water, is what makes my favorite time of day -- either early in the morning or in the evening.

Awesome job with the running! Yes, it is true that unless someone is involved in the sport themselves, they really do not care. Last year I trained for my first Half Ironman and drove people nuts b/c it was all I talked about. I'm currently training for a half and full Ironman... I'm trying not to annoy people as much.

Spring cannot arrive fast enough for me. Because that's when I start bike-ridin' around the place, and the river trail's a favorite. Sadly, it's a favorite because Tommy Gunn's Ribs are at the far end of it, which works against the whole weight-loss effort.

(It also gives me a chance to shoot some nice nature stuff along the Wissahickon.)

But bike riding in the winter is not for thin-fingered types like me. As for running... well, there's only so many times that my weight can come down on my ankles before I start to feel uncomfortable.

I just can't get into the running thing. But I need to work on my cardio. Every day I get in a lot of walking and lot of carrying heavy stuff (morning animal care, homestead-style farm). I work in the garden and don't have any power tools, etc. But I get winded climbing up the hill from the pasture, every darned day.